Swimming & Diving

Notre Dame set for ‘tune-up’ meet with Ball State

Coming off a home meet in which the Irish men finished the weekend on top while the Irish women placed second behind Wisconsin and several pool records were broken, Notre Dame hopes to carry its momentum into this Saturday’s away meet against Ball State.

“We have a different take on this weekend’s competition compared to our last one,” Litzinger said. “It was our last home meet swimming against a ranked Wisconsin team and two other teams in Missouri State and Grand Canyon University who have national-level swimmers. Swimming against Ball State is kind of a last minute tune-up for our conference championships. We are regional opponents and it is a good fit for this time of year, but it will be more of a polishing of our races rather than an intense competition.”

Litzinger described how he plans to build momentum leading up to the ACC women’s championships, which begin on Feb. 13 in Atlanta.

“We will be leaving for the women’s championships a week from Friday. So because we will be inside a week from that, we won’t swim a full schedule of events,” Litzinger said. “We will pick out one or two races for each of our athletes, focus on race strategy and have an opportunity to sharpen some things up. Since the men are three weeks away from the conference championships, they will swim a couple more events and use it as a speed day for our training.”

After completing the last home meet, Litzinger said he was confident in the team’s ability to win on the road.

“We have practiced swimming in away situations all year long: at Louisville, at Northwestern, at Georgia Tech,” he said. “We are used to swimming away from home and that was the point of the schedule I put together: to get off the bus, get a good stretch, have a good warm up, get good rest and compete. I think our mentality is pretty solid for this upcoming stretch of meets that are away.”

The Irish take on Ball State on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Lewellen Aquatic Center in Muncie, Indiana.